Transfer Win7 from MBR drive to GPT drive

Hi,

Can you pls tell me the easiest way to move my system from a MBR format to the GPT one.
I followed a few guides but I'm not very sure of the way I should do it.

I would also like to try some Linux distros on the GPT drive.
For the moment I have backup images created by means of Acronis but probably I won't be able to boot them. Can I use them?
Also please a recommended layout of the GPT partitions.

Thanks!
intze

 

Acronis images created on an MBR disk cannot be used to restore to a GPT disk, so if you go ahead with this conversion you will have to reinstall Win 7 and your software. You can test out Linux distros without this mega change by using a virtual machine or bootable flash drives. If your computer has a legacy BIOS this really isn't a very good idea at all.

 

EDIT - I'm wrong about having to reinstall. Seems that disk management programs such as Partition Wizard can do the conversion for you, without data loss so they say. So that's the easy way and I guess your existing partition structure will be maintained. Never tried it myself though. Make sure you have an up to date image and bootable rescue CD in case things go belly up.

 

thank you, I'll begin in the evening the big migration, lol.
wish me luck!
anyway I have to do it in the future and now I have a little time to spare.

 

To do as Earthling suggested though, you may need to do it pre-OS (in other words from the CD). MiniTool may tell you this. (I haven't tried this myself as all 3 of my Windows OSes [XP Pro/POSReady2009, Vista Ultimate and Win 8.1 Pro] run just fine from MBR disks.)